Every year around the beginning of April, the cherry blossoms "sakura" bloom beautifully in Japan. Winter is over, spring has come. The new school year begins in April and many start new jobs at this time. It feels like a time of renewal, new beginnings.

My son made this video of a riverside park near our house. I probably posted a similar one last year. Hope you enjoy.

[www.youtube.com]

Beautiful! Thanks.

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Bill
Flagler Beach, FL 32136

Carpe Vino!

Fermentation may have been a greater discovery than fire.
— David Rains Wallace

I was lucky enough to be there for hanami in 2016. I never would have planned a trip around it, but a $440 round-trip fare popped up, and I didn't think twice. In Ashiya, I found myself in the middle of a weekend festival celebrating the blossoms. And it was so cool seeing the families picnicking beneath the blossoms in Hiroshima's Peace Park, or the grounds of Himeji Castle.

Sweet. I have fond memories of visiting Himeji Castle during cherry blossom season.

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"Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.

And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow. "

By A.E. HOUSMAN

Beautiful. Thanks for posting.
In contrast, here is cherry blossom viewing in New York City

A massive crush of visitors to Roosevelt Island's annual cherry blossom festival prompted the NYPD to ask the MTA to cut subway service to the island on Saturday afternoon.
"... the station's lone exit had only four turnstiles and an emergency exit, not enough to handle the crowds. "Everybody was trying to get out, and"—on the outside—"everybody was trying to get in."




Video
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